Hi, and thanks for your questions. I have the impression that you believe if a c 603 hermit writes her own Rule, as the canon requires we do, it might not comport with the Gospel. Let me assure you that every diocesan hermit I know of lives Gospel values and has the God of Jesus Christ and union with Christ at the center of her life. There is perhaps no greater indication of this than the vows we make and the way these stand at the heart of our Rules. Remember these are vows of the Evangelical Counsels, literally --- vows to live these significant Gospel Counsels of Jesus.
Even more, we live these values with Christ as our model, and beyond this, as our Beloved. It is Christ whose intimate friendship we know and hope to know ever more intimately, and whose relationships with Father and Spirit we also seek to know in complete dependence on the will of God. In this way, we recognize that in our professions and consecrations, we have been called to continue in our own lives the Incarnation of God's Son.
Each diocesan hermit's Rule of Life will capture 1) something of the hermit's experience of God as God has been at work in her life over the years, 2) her understanding of and commitment to the foundational elements of c 603, and 3) especially her experience of and faithfulness to redemption in Christ known and celebrated in the Gospel. These three are then contextualized within a public and ecclesial vocation lived for the sake of God, his Church, and all that is precious to God. Together these constitute a personally integrated program of solitary eremitical living as a disciple, and too, as a spouse of Christ who truly is the hermit's Beloved. In other words, every facet of the c 603 hermit's Rule is transparent to and reflects the Gospel of God in Christ and is lived in the name of the Church.
I should point out that this is not surprising. The Gospel is understood to be the true Rule from several perspectives and spiritualities. St Francis summed up the Rule of his followers as the Gospel in @1209. St Francis de Sales wrote his Rule from his focus on Scripture. Vatican II counseled that the Gospel was the heart of any Rule of Life, and John Paul II in Vita Consecrata (1996) begins the document with a reference to the example and teaching of Jesus: [[The Consecrated Life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord, is a gift of God the Father to his Church through the Holy Spirit. By the profession of the evangelical counsels, the characteristic features of Jesus — the chaste, poor, and obedient one — are made constantly "visible" in the midst of the world, and the eyes of the faithful are directed towards the mystery of the Kingdom of God already at work in history, even as it awaits its full realization in heaven.]] After a beginning like that, it should not surprise anyone that the whole of consecrated life is meant to reflect what you have called, "the Gospel Rule."
I sincerely hope this is helpful. I wonder if you could let me know what you think the Gospel Rule is? I gave my understanding of it, but perhaps that is not what you think the phrase means. Let me know how you use this term! Thanks.
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